How Twitter became a porn platform for gay men in China
Although Twitter is not typically associated with adult content, it has built a reputation among Chinese gay men as a hub for amateur pornographic media.
People use Twitter for many reasons. Some default to it when trying to stay up-to-date on current events and check public opinion. It functions as a source of entertainment or a networking tool for others. But for many gay men in China, where the platform is blocked, Twitter is their go-to destination for adult content.
“I started using Twitter in 2010 when I was studying in the UK. It was not until I came back to China in 2019 that I realized Twitter could be used for porn,” Jasper, a 26-year-old gay man currently living in Guangzhou, told The China Project. “From there, I was introduced to content much kinkier and much more open than what I consumed when I was in the West.”
Jasper is not alone in his unusual usage of Twitter. When asked to share their stories about sexuality, several young urban Chinese gay men revealed similar experiences, describing the platform as an exciting world of sexually explicit media.
In China’s public domain, sex has always been a fraught topic. Traditionally deemed as inappropriate to the country’s cultural norms and values, public discussions of sexuality are typically frowned upon. In schools, sexuality education is severely limited. Although there are references to heterosexuality in biology classes, some teachers choose to skip them to avoid embarrassment.
China’s LGBTQ population has it even tougher. Due to stringent censorship, representations of sexual minorities remain scarce in Chinese mainstream media. Intimacy and sex between non-heterosexual people are considered forbidden topics. For example, when the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody was released in China in 2019, all references to the legendary singer’s homosexuality, including his AIDS diagnosis, were edited out.
“Before the age of the internet, everyone was enveloped by loneliness,” a Chinese gay man who requested to remain anonymous told The China Project. “I didn’t know if there was anyone else who was like me.”
Internet technologies changed how queer people in China explore their sexualities. Earlier platforms such as the Bulletin Board System (BBS), which allowed users to post public messages and share multimedia content, became one of the first digital spaces where Chinese gay men could freely exchange sexually explicit materials and communicate sexual preferences.
However, the BBS had two limitations. First, since many of the BBS servers were in the Chinese mainland, they easily became targets of the government’s regular anti-pornography campaigns. As a result, connections were unstable, and online forums needed to constantly change their web address. Second, because pornography is illegal in China, most of the adult content circulated on the Chinese BBS was from Japan or the U.S.
It was not until the age of social media that Chinese gay men witnessed an explosion of porn content made in China and for Chinese audiences on international platforms. While these international websites are blocked by the Great Firewall, China’s sophisticated internet censorship system, they could still be accessed with tools like Virtual Private Network (VPN) services, which allowed Chinese gay men to join vibrant international communities for sexually explicit media.
On Twitter, for instance, one can now easily find porn content created and uploaded by China-based users. Distinguished from studio pornography with professional actors and production, Chinese pornographic content on the site usually features amateur actors — in most cases, the uploaders themselves — and is recorded on smartphones or low-end digital cameras. Although this Do-It-Yourself (DIY) style feels less “premium,” most Chinese gay men interviewed by The China Project said they preferred its rusty aesthetics and authentic vibe, in comparison to staged and exaggerated studio porn that feels “overall fake.”
Another reason that Chinese gay men liked porn content on Twitter is because of its adaptive algorithm, which makes it possible for them to tailor the site according to their own purposes. Unlike adult video sites such as PornHub, which recommends content based on user statistics across the board, Twitter operates on a decentralized structure that allows its users to follow accounts they like and discover similar accounts through the platform’s algorithmic curation. In this way, Chinese gay users can personalize their Twitter feeds to make them suitable for their own tastes and preferences.
Although international platforms such as Twitter are empowering gay men in China to explore their sexualities, circumventing state censorship to access pornographic content hosted on overseas websites comes with legal risks. In July 2020, for instance, a man from Hunan Province was given an unspecified “administrative penalty” for using VPN services to access overseas erotic websites blocked in China. This incident alerted Chinese gay men of the risks associated with VPN usage and prompted many DIY porn producers to temporarily suspend their accounts.
In spite of these risks, it seems that Chinese amateur gay porn will continue to flourish on Twitter. As some of the interviewees put it, porn is a “necessity, even in China,” and being able to watch adult videos makes them feel like “a normal citizen, just like everyone else.”
Other LGBT stories this week:
How a rabbit god became an icon for Taiwan’s gay community (The Guardian)
In Taipei, a Taoist temple revering Tu’er Shen or rabbit god has become an attraction for gay people, who come to worship the “LGBTQ patron” because of the rabbit’s connection with gender and sexuality, and particularly androgyny and same-sex attraction, in Chinese culture.
How a new drug law, old attitudes, and persistent health care system shortcomings threaten China’s transgender community (Time Magazine)
The Chinese government’s tightening regulation of the online pharmaceutical market has made it more difficult for the transgender community to buy hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs, adding more hurdles for a community that is already struggling with social stigma and lack of legal protection.
Queer China is our fortnightly round-up of news and stories related to China’s sexual and gender minority population.
